Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
April 23
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on helping storm victims:
The threat of tornadoes is one we know all too well in Northeast Mississippi.
In fact, if it feels like such storms have become more common lately, they actually have. According to research from Northern Illinois University, tornadoes have been occurring more often in the Southeastern U.S. in recent years than in the part of the Great Plains that has been known as “Tornado Alley,” as reported by the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser.
The volatility has created an ethos of having to be constantly ready for severe weather, especially during this time of year. That means having a plan, knowing where to find safe rooms and being flexible to change plans rapidly when storms strike. The continual risk has also established a culture in which residents are accustomed to quickly springing into action when neighbors are struck.
This year has been no different, and there are many Northeast Mississippians now in need of our help as a result of numerous severe weather outbreaks, including significant tornado damage in both Columbus and Hamilton.
Columbus was hit by an EF-3 tornado on Feb. 23 that resulted in one fatality and 19 injuries. With an estimated maximum wind speed of 137 miles-per-hour, the twister damaged 275 homes, 38 businesses and nine public buildings.
Then on April 13, a rapidly developing EF-2 tornado hit Hamilton in the middle of the night. It also resulted in a fatality and 19 injuries, in addition to damaging or destroying more than 145 homes. Roy Ratliff, 95, died after a tree fell on him while he was in bed.
According to the National Weather Service, the Hamilton tornado was on the ground for 11.3 miles from 11:06 to 11:23 p.m., and its estimated peak winds were 130 miles per hour. A second EF-1 tornado formed west of Greenwood Springs and tracked to near the Itawamba County line.
And while Northeast Mississippi was largely spared during another line of storms last Thursday, there were reports of homes damaged in Chickasaw, Lowndes, Webster and Oktibbeha counties, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Plus, there have been multiple instances of flooding that have occurred throughout the region during our wet winter.
In total, it means many of our neighbors need our help. And there are many ways in which you can lend a helping hand.
In Monroe County, Aberdeen, Amory and Nettleton’s City Halls are accepting relief donations for Hamilton, including non-perishable food, canned goods, bottled water and cleaning supplies. Ampot Federal Credit Union, located at 40481 Old Hwy 45 in Hamilton, is also taking monetary donations for Hamilton tornado relief. And anyone wishing to volunteer can call the hotline number at 662-319-7301 to get directed to the right person.
Meanwhile, you can also direct your efforts through relief organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Tupelo-based ministry Eight Days of Hope, which have all been on the ground aiding victims throughout the region.
Let’s all pitch in and help our neighbors as they rebuild.
Online: https://www.djournal.com
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April 18
The Enterprise-Journal on voters should look forward:
This latest journalistic fad of digging into old high school and college yearbooks of politicians and others in the public eye will eventually pass.
Until it does, though, this game of gotcha is only going to get sillier.
Andy Taggart, a Republican candidate for attorney general, is the latest Mississippi politician to be put to the yearbook litmus test.
This past week, a story surfaced that Taggart, while he was serving as student body president at Mississippi College in 1979, appeared in a skit in which at least one of the characters - not Taggart - wore blackface. The inference of the story was that by participating in such a skit, Taggart saw nothing wrong at the time of trying to get laughs by impersonating black people in a denigrating or patronizing way.
Who knows what Taggart was thinking 40 years ago? People in their late teens and early 20s are not known for being particularly introspective. He says he doesn’t remember the skit, but that he is embarrassed by the yearbook photo and regrets being part of the comic routine.
That should be enough said. Unless anyone has evidence that Taggart, as an attorney or in his public life - including having served three Republican governors in various staff or advisory roles - has acted in a racist manner, then this supposed controversy is trivial and wasn’t worth the play it got.
Regrettably, the story has distracted from a much more contemporary racial question on which Taggart has bravely tried to lead.
As he did a year and a half ago, when he urged the state Republicans to get behind a movement to try to change the state’s polarizing flag, Taggart said he would continue to champion a new flag if he is elected attorney general.
It was a bold stand in 2017. It’s even bolder as a statewide Republican candidate.
Although polls reportedly show support for the state’s current banner, with its controversial Confederate emblem, is gradually weakening, a majority of Mississippians would most likely vote against a change, as they did in 2001 by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
Support for the flag is strongest among whites and Republicans - those who will largely decide whether Taggart advances to the general election.
It would have been politically safer for him to downplay the flag issue until he saw whether he got by his two GOP opponents. But Taggart deserves lots of credit for trying to steer public opinion, rather than to be just steered by it.
He’s also trying to use the pulpit that his political life has provided to educate Mississippians about drug addiction and how policymakers and law enforcement should respond to it.
Taggart has the life experience to talk authoritatively about this issue, bearing the scars of losing a son seven years ago to a drug-driven suicide.
Taggart is part of a new sensibility in the drug war - and in corrections policy in general - that says this country needs to better distinguish between the victims of the drug epidemic and the perpetrators of it.
What gets tricky is how broadly each group is defined.
It’s not hard convincing people that addicts such as Taggart’s son, whose only crime was possessing and using illicit drugs, are victims. And there’s nearly universal agreement that those who run illegal drug-trafficking operations, and those who deceive about the dangers of the legal painkillers they manufacture or overprescribe, are predators.
It’s a lot tougher to decide in which category fall the small-time criminals who break into houses and cars or sell small amounts of drugs to pay for their own fix.
Are they predators because they take what doesn’t belong to them or sell drugs to other current or potential addicts? Or are they victims who resort to the only ways they know to keep the drug supply coming?
That’s a discussion that Taggart’s candidacy should foster, and it’s a whole lot more important than whether he was in a college skit where somebody used blackface.
Taggart was talking about the state flag the other day when he encouraged Mississippians who are stuck on tradition to adjust their focus.
“It’s not a coincidence that a windshield is way bigger than a rearview mirror,” he said. “It’s because we ought to be spending a lot more time looking forward than looking back.”
The same concept should be applied to how we view Taggart and others seeking political office. We should worry little about whether they embarrassed themselves in the distant past and a lot about whether they’ll embarrass us in the near future.
Online: http://www.enterprise-journal.com
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April 18
The Commercial Dispatch on losing longstanding retailer:
The news that Fred’s will close two stores in Columbus by the end of May has alarmed long-time patrons of the stores and moved Mayor Robert Smith to pen a letter to the chain’s corporate office in Memphis pleading for the company to change its mind.
The reaction is interesting. Over the years, a wide variety of chain stores have left the city. While the general response from the community has been disappointment, there has rarely been an effort to rally behind those stores and keep them here as we are seeing in this case.
It’s clear that patrons of these two stores — one on Alabama Street, the other on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus — have a deep connection with the stores. It’s worth noting that the downtown store, in particular, has been a fixture in the area for approaching a half-century. Other downtown businesses have come and gone. Fred’s remained. Some customers have been shopping at Fred’s for decades.
While it is possible the pleas to keep the stores open may succeed, it’s unlikely.
The store closings are two of more than 100 “under-performing” Fred’s stores that are set to be closed. The scale of the closures strongly suggests this is not some impulse decision. Rather, it’s based on cold, hard facts — and little else. It’s doubtful that those who made this decision have ever darkened the doorway of either Columbus store. There is no emotional investment. It’s strictly a business decision.
Given that, the best approach for our community is to view this as an opportunity.
There are strong arguments to be made for local investment in these soon-to-be-vacant properties.
The depth of feeling expressed over the closure of these stores suggests there is a dedicated customer base. Many of the Southside customers say Fred’s is the only access they have to purchase basic food items and other household products.
In a city without public transportation, those who do not own a car have come to rely on these stores to meet their needs.
Such places are called “food deserts” and there are federal grants available to support stores that agree to operate in those areas. That’s definitely worth exploring.
For years now, people have noted a need for a grocery store to serve the downtown area — Gayle Guynup suggested a community grocery store as a possible tenant for the Depot when she purchased the property in 2014.
Businesses need a customer base to be successful, obviously. The outpouring of support for Fred’s, even with its limited supply of grocery items, suggests such a customer base exists.
We have long been an advocate for locally-owned small businesses, which — unlike chains — do have a personal investment in the community and keep all of the revenue generated by their businesses circulating in the local economy rather than being sent off to some far-away corporate office.
We do not criticize citizens and city leaders for their efforts to ask Fred’s to reconsider its decision.
But the better course of action may be to encourage and support local investment in these properties.
Losing Fred’s is a blow, we concede.
But it also may be an opportunity to provide even better service.
Online: https://www.cdispatch.com
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